Bloomington, Indiana – With the help of Mackenzie Holmes’ 22 points and Sydney Parrish’s game-winning 3-pointer, No. 4 Indiana defeated Nebraska 74-62 in overtime on Sunday to avenge its lone loss.
After Jaz Shelley of the Cornhuskers missed a possible game-winning jump shot in the final seconds of regulation, Indiana defeated Nebraska 12-0 in overtime.
“We’re built for moments like those,” Holmes said. “We always have been. We take a lot of pride in being the better-conditioned team when the game gets going down the stretch in the fourth quarter and even overtime situations. We take a lot of pride in being able to shift into that extra gear.”
For the Hoosiers (13-1, 3-1 Big Ten), who outlasted the Cornhuskers (10-5, 2-2) in a game that was knotted 13 times and had 17 lead changes, Holmes made 8 of 14 shots, pulled down 10 rebounds, and blocked five shots.
“Give Nebraska credit, that’s a really good basketball team,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “I have a feeling that a lot of our Big Ten games this year are going to be like that. There’s just a lot of talent, from top to bottom. Night in and night out, if you’re not ready to play, you’re always at risk of coming up short.”
When Parrish sank her third 3-pointer with 3:57 left, the advantage changed for good. The other Hoosiers shot only 1 of 13 times from beyond the arc.
“As a shooter, you go through slumps,” Parrish said. “In the fourth quarter, I airballed one and Coach Moren said to just keep shooting, keep shooting. Knowing she has that confidence in me gives me the confidence to keep shooting the ball.”
Parrish scored 16 points in the end. 13 more points were added by Chloe Moore-McNeil, including 7 of 8 free throws.
With 15 points, Isabelle Bourne took the Cornhuskers’ lead.
“We said it was going to take 40 minutes,” Nebraska coach Amy Williams said. “It actually was going to take 45 minutes, and that last 5 minutes we didn’t keep our same defensive focus that we had up to that point.”
The Cornhuskers failed to reach the line either. Of its 30 attempts, Indiana made 24 of them. Nebraska only made 5 out of 9.
“Obviously today, I thought the game was lost at the free throw line,” Williams said.
Both teams were coming off defeats; Nebraska lost 76-59 at home to No. 14 Michigan on Wednesday, while Indiana turned the ball over 21 times in an 83-78 loss at Michigan State on Thursday. Even though they had just 13 turnovers last time around, the Hoosiers failed to make shots outside of Holmes.
“We are four games into the Big Ten and we can’t take anyone for granted,” Holmes said. “Every win is important, especially with the strength of the conference this year. We just have to work a little bit harder because we know every night is going to be a battle.”
Early in, Nebraska had a seven-point advantage. It was not until there was 4:39 left in the second quarter that Indiana took its first lead. Despite shooting only 33% from the field and missing 8 of 9 3-point attempts, the Hoosiers led 31-30 at the break.
“We didn’t shoot it well, I know that,” Moren said. “But we hit the shots we needed to hit in overtime.”
